Press Release: Pine Island Data Center Environmental Study Appealed
New MN lawsuit challenges the adequacy of Pine Island data center’s environmental review study
It’s the fourth in MN challenging opaque and inadequate environmental review of data centers
DATE: 10/17/25 CONTACT: Aaron Klemz, MCEA, aklemz@mncenter.org, 763-788-0282
St. Paul, Minnesota – Thursday, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) appealed the City of Pine Island’s environmental review of the “Project Skyway” hyper-scale data center proposed for the southeastern Minnesota city because the study lacked the specificity and analysis required by law to accurately evaluate a project’s potential environmental impacts.
The lawsuit is the fourth filed in Minnesota in the last two months challenging the environmental review of data center proposals. The type of environmental study conducted by the City of Pine Island is called an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR), an environmental planning tool sometimes used by governments to study the impacts of proposed developments. Under Minnesota rules, AUARs are supposed to contain a “level of analysis comparable to that of an EIS [Environmental Impact Statement],” the highest level of environmental review in Minnesota. When used for large specific projects, Minnesota law requires AUARs to include “clear, complete and detailed” descriptions of the specific projects under review.
Pine Island’s AUAR falls woefully short of these legal requirements by failing to describe even basic components of the proposed data center, including the project’s size and scale. It also omits critical details about the development’s potential impacts on energy and water. The “Project Skyway” AUAR further violates the law by failing to study the cumulative impacts of the proposed data center on water, electricity, noise, and light.
“Environmental review is the public’s only opportunity to understand and weigh in on the ways a development could impact their community and quality of life before it moves forward; it can’t do that if nearly all the relevant details of the proposed project are absent from the process,” said Abigail Hencheck, staff attorney for MCEA. “Our state law requires transparency and our communities deserve better.”
The data center proposed in Pine Island is part of a wave of hyperscale data centers being proposed across Minnesota to support the growing demand for artificial intelligence. Data centers at this scale may provide some economic benefits, but they can also consume massive amounts of electricity, large amounts of water, and huge quantities of metals and other materials. For example, if all the data centers currently proposed in the state were built they would consume as much electricity as every home in Minnesota.
Major omissions and incomplete analysis in Pine Island’s AUAR mean that key potential impacts from the proposal weren’t studied. For example, “Project Skyway” would reportedly use up to 55.7 million gallons of Pine Island’s water annually and increase the City’s water use by 50 percent. Yet, the AUAR did not study how the spike in water usage could impact groundwater, local aquifers or nearby private wells.
The AUAR also did not disclose how much electricity the development would use, what the fuel source would be, nor how it would impact the electrical grid. Given the massive power use associated with data centers, these failures are glaring. Despite those omissions, the document includes an estimate for the project’s total greenhouse gas emissions, but again provides no basis in the study for how the figure was determined.
Pine Island residents packed a public meeting about the proposed data center last week. Several who spoke expressed concern about the lack of transparency surrounding the process as well as frustration about feeling shut out of it. The process in Pine Island mirrors a pattern unfolding nationally, where data center proposals are advancing without sufficient opportunities for public input or environmental review.
"Residents of Pine Island deserve to know what impact this facility will have on our community and our environment, including who the end user is, what kind of data center it is, and how it will impact our water and energy resources. There needs to be intentional conversation at the local level around what the community actually wants for the town and guardrails that need to be in place locally while we're advocating/waiting for the state to catch up” said Aubree Derksen, a Pine Island resident. “So far neither the City, nor the project proposer can give us clear, concrete information about those things, and we need to know that before the project goes forward."
MCEA is asking the Court to halt the project until the City completes adequate environmental review of the data center proposal so that decision-makers and the public can make an informed decision about whether it makes sense for their community.
Questions about the lawsuit, a copy of the complaint, and interview requests can be directed to Aaron Klemz at the contact information listed at the top of this release.
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Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) is a nonprofit environmental law organization whose mission is to use the law and science to protect Minnesota’s environment, natural resources, and the health of its people.